WHAT A CARVE UP Comedy horror – free on YouTube

What a Carve Up is a 1961 British comedy horror film produced by Robert S. Baker and Monty Berman (Blood of the Vampire, Jack the Ripper, The Flesh and the Fiends) and directed by Pat Jackson from a screenplay by Ray Cooney (The Hand, 1960 – he later specialised in highly-successful theatrical sex comedy farces) and Tony Hilton (The Hand, 1960).

The plot was loosely based on the novel The Ghoul by Frank King, which had previously been adapted for cinema in 1933. The publicity title – What a Carve Up! – used an exclamation mark for greater emphasis. In the US, it was released by Joseph E. Levine’s Embassy Pictures as No Place Like Homicide.

The film was used extensively within Jonathan Coe‘s satirical 1994 novel What a Carve Up!. The book’s protagonist, Michael Owen, becomes obsessed with the film after first watching it as a young boy. Additionally, the last part of the book follows the plot of the film.

Plot:
The relatives of Uncle Gabriel are summoned to an old country house on the Yorkshire Moors to hear the reading of his will. They all stay in the mansion overnight, and one by one the guests are murdered. The remaining guests must solve the mystery as to who is committing these murders before they too are killed…

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Choice dialogue:

Ernest: “I regard that as low-class humour, Sidney.”

Clip:

What a Carve Up – free on YouTube:

Cast:
Sidney James … Sid Butler who acts as Ernest’s legal advisor
Kenneth Connor … Ernest Broughton; Sid’s best friend and who is attracted to Miss Dixon
Shirley Eaton … Linda Dixon, a pretty nurse who likes Ernie
Dennis Price … Guy Broughton. He is Ernie’s cousin and a heavy drinker
Donald Pleasence … Everett Sloane – The zombie-like solicitor
Esma Cannon … Emily Broughton, a mad lady who believes World War I is still on
Valerie Taylor … Janet Broughton – Guy’s grasping and hated sister
Michael Gwynn … Malcolm Broughton, a piano player who says everyone is “Quite mad!”
George Woodbridge … Doctor Edward Broughton who is the father of Janet and Guy
Michael Gough … Fisk, a creepy butler
Frederick Piper … the hearse driver
Timothy Bateson … the porter
Adam Faith as himself

Filming locations:
Taplow Court, Buckinghamshire (also used for Night of the Eagle)

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